The subject matter of the present disclosure broadly relates to the art of printing systems and, more particularly, to a printing system capable of marking on an extended length of sheet media together with pre-cut sheets of media, and a method of using the same.
Printing systems that utilize a continuous length of sheet material are well known and commonly used for production of larger volume print jobs. That is, such printing systems are often employed for print jobs in which a significant quantity of a single document is to be produced. Typically, such printing systems require substantial time, effort and cost to setup in preparation for the production of a given print job. As a result, continuous feed printing systems, as such systems are commonly referred to in the art, are often deemed to be less well suited for producing a relatively small number of copies of a given document.
Conventional continuous feed printing systems are supplied by extended lengths of sheet media, which are commonly provided in bulk roll form. Such lengths of sheet media are sometimes referred to as webs by those of skill in the art. One benefit of utilizing such a printing system is that the frequent resupplying of pre-cut sheets of media is avoided. Thus, such continuous feed printing systems, once setup for production, can sustain operation for long periods of time, which can help to increase productivity and reduce production costs.
In some cases, however, a document may call for one or more pages that are printed on sheet media having different properties and/or characteristics than that of the continuous length of sheet media being supplied to the printing system. For example, such pages may call for sheet media of a different size, a different weight or thickness and/or a different type or material than that of the length of sheet media being supplied to the printing system. Unfortunately, the efficiencies and cost savings that might otherwise be associated with the production of such a document on a continuous feed printing system are often significantly reduced due to the call for sheets of media having these different properties and/or characteristics.
In such cases, these additional pages of the document may be produced on a different printing system or, in some cases, at a different time on the same printing system. Regardless of whether these additional pages are produced on the same or a different printing system, however, one disadvantage of this situation is that additional time, effort and cost is often involved in setting up a printing system for the production of these additional sheets or pages. Additionally, these separate sheets or pages are then typically added as inserts into or otherwise combined with the sheets of the document produced on the continuous feed printing system. Such inserting operations are also costly and time consuming, in many cases. As such, these situations in which at least a portion of a document is to be printed on a separate printing system and/or at a separate time can often undesirably increase production expenses and/or lead time for production of documents.
Accordingly, it is believed desirable to develop a printing system capable of marking on an extended length of sheet media together with pre-cut sheets of media, and a method of using the same that overcomes the foregoing and/or other issues.